5 Reasons Why Online User Manuals Are Cost Effective

User manuals are documents that companies create in regard to various products or services that they provide. The point of these documents is to explain how to use a certain product correctly and, more importantly, safely.

This is a method for customer support that can help businesses get better results. On top of that, these documents help customers in many ways, meaning that the whole customer support experience will be brought to a higher level of quality.

Although there are many benefits of online user manuals, it’s important that we talk about how cost-effective they are, and to explain why they offer a good ROI. Investing in customer support is essential in modern business and online user manuals are a viable option to go for.

They are cost-effective to create

When you compare the costs of creating an online user manual with the benefits it will give in return, it becomes very obvious just how cost effective they are. A user manual for a single product needs to be created once and, when it’s put online, the job is done.

Creating a user manual is not a big investment. It can be written fairly quickly by a single person and the designer can structure it and do the finishing touches to make it look more appealing.

Hiring a writer and a designer to do this for all of your products is not a big investment, as these are fairly simple tasks for them. On top of that, this is a once in a lifetime investment you won’t have to make ever again. When created, online user manuals will do their magic on their own and you won’t have to worry about additional costs.

They reduce the chances of a business being sued

One of the more obvious reasons behind a user manual’s cost effectiveness is that it prevents the business organization from being sued and destroyed in court by their customers. It’s very important to reduce liability when it comes to product misuse, especially if the business is selling products that can cause heavy injuries and even death.

Some of the products that might be dangerous include high voltage electronics, powerful light sources, lasers, heating devices, mechanical devices, and so on. Customer support materials can include the right tags and various warning signs within the manual to protect the users.

If an unfortunate situation does occur, the business will not be held liable in court, given the fact that they provided all of the relevant instructions and warnings within their online user manuals, but the user didn’t read them and learn how to handle the product correctly.

They are simple to use and provide valuable answers

When someone purchases a product, they will not be interested in much else other than learning the important things about that product. Unlike live chat or phone calls, customers don’t have to rely on anyone to get the information they want, and this is the beauty of online user manuals.

They can simply be instructed to go to your website and find the information they need. Manuals are written in a simple language that is clear for anyone to read and understand. On top of that, user manuals have a structure that offers a clear overview of all the important details about a certain product.

For a business selling products that require an installation procedure, user manuals are the best form of customer support documentation to turn to.

All of this leads to better customer satisfaction rates and more purchases. Plus, quality customer support is what puts you on top – it’s what differentiates you from your competitors.

They don’t require maintenance

Unlike most other customer support channels, online user manuals are not operated or maintained by anyone. They are simply uploaded online and users can download them; it’s that simple. All of the necessary preparation was done during the creation process and only some minor edits can come up in the future.

The organization won’t have to spend any more money on these manuals, nor will it have to assign employees to do more work on them. Therefore, one can say that user manuals are self-sufficient and available to everyone who wants to read them.

All customer support channels require people to work on them constantly, if they are to be effective, but this is not the case with user manuals, as they are self-service materials that can be accessed and used by consumers alone.

User manuals don’t create queues

For a lot of consumers, one of the most annoying things is having to wait for a long time for someone from customer service to talk to them, so that they can get important answers that might help them buy something and make a decision.

All of that waiting can reduce the level of customer satisfaction. User manuals have the power to solve problems before they even appear, giving users all the relevant information in one place; no queues, no stress.

This means that this kind of customer support material is highly efficient. More people will be able to get the information they need without having to wait in line. Instead of setting up a call center, where you will have to hire new employees to provide help to your customers, just create online user manuals that will do this better, and at a lower cost.

User manuals are highly efficient tools that can provide valuable customer support with relevant information and quickly solve any problems that people might have. On top of that, user manuals are cheaper than most other online customer support methods. Try using online user manuals and harness all of the benefits that they offer.

Sameer Bhatia

Sameer Bhatia is founder & CEO of ProProfs, a leading provider of online learning tools for building, testing, and applying knowledge. ProProfs Knowledge Base Software is used to create highly-searchable online FAQ’s to improve customer service and reduce tickets. It helps centralize access to organizational files, documents and how-to articles ensuring they can be accessed across multiple devices and platforms.
Sameer founded ProProfs based on the vision that knowledge should be freely available to people from all walks of life. The site hosts 1,000,000+ pieces of content in 90+ languages, and is a leading platform for online training and assessment with the world’s largest library of professional tests & quizzes. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC) and is an ed-tech industry veteran.